A vendor wearing a face mask packs lanterns ahead of the Vesak festival which marks the birth, enlightenment and passing away into Nirvana of Buddha in Delgoda #SriLanka
??Ishara S. Kodikara @AFP @AFPphoto pic.twitter.com/84doLa6xzB
— AFP South Asia (@AFPSouthAsia) May 3, 2020
May the full moon of Vesak, take away the darkness of ignorance, bigotry and hatred and herald an era of contentment peace and enlightenment for the world! Heartiest Greetings on this day.Happy Buddha Jayanti!
… On Vesak Day, Buddhists all over the world commemorate events of significance to Buddhists of all traditions: The birth, enlightenment and the passing away of Gautama Buddha. As Buddhism spread from India it was assimilated into many foreign cultures, and consequently Vesak is celebrated in many different ways all over the world. In India, Vaishakh Purnima day is also known as Buddha Jayanti day and has been traditionally accepted as Buddha’s birth day…
Buddhist monks pray at Bangkok's Wat Bowonniwetwiharn temple on Visaka Bucha Day even as Thais are encouraged not to gather inside places of worship in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19
?? Lillian Suwanrumpha pic.twitter.com/xddPRIDLae
— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 7, 2020
Speaking of Bodhisattvas…
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, has returned home after spending the night at Johns Hopkins Hospital to undergo nonsurgical treatment for an infection caused by a gallstone, the Supreme Court says.https://t.co/aObOf0bJCK
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 7, 2020
Also excellent news:
It's weird how the biggest public health story of 2020 went by almost unnoticed. https://t.co/0N8Jo7HPVE
— Pinboard ?? (@Pinboard) May 6, 2020
debbie
They will need to pray much, much harder this year. Ignorance, bigotry, and hatred have just about overwhelmed us all.
OzarkHillbilly
repost from the thread below:
Live and Let Die plays as Donald Trump visits mask factory without a mask – video
Live and Let Die… I want to shake the hand of the factory worker who put that on.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: I wondered about that. A little too spot-on to be anything but subversive.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Are you sure that’s not one of Trump’s campaign songs? It’s got that same vibe of lowering expectations as the Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want.
satby
That story on malaria is huge, and will be lost in the more immediate covid-19 coverage. But if it and the linked story about a fungus that kills 90% of the malaria mosquitoes exposed pan out it could mean a drastic reduction to one of the worst diseases man suffers from. That would be wonderful news.
It’s not mentioned, but the Gates Foundation has been heavily finding attempts to eradicate malaria and it wouldn’t surprise me if both studies had some funding provided by the Gates.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear: @debbie: It is possible it was accidental. It is possible it was stupidity on a trump campaign official’s part.
I prefer to think it was pitch perfect world class trolling.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: The story I read about that earlier this week left me with the impression that Trump had actually chosen the music, which seemed like an odd choice, but he’s an odd bird…
Perhaps I misunderstood?
Baud
@satby:
Right. Malaria is like the worst killer or among the top.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: I would not in the least be surprised if trump was picking the music.
I still like my fantasy better.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
raven
rikyrah
Daniels can go phuck himself ??
debbie
@WaterGirl:
He clearly fancies himself as James Bond. /eyeroll/
Baud
@rikyrah:
Will he join us in blaming Trump? If not, then it will be partisan.
Baud
@raven:
That does not sound like something Trump would do.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
I think it’s fine if we don’t get involved in a partisan blame game, but we do need to hold incompetent officials accountable in a non-partisan fashion.
OzarkHillbilly
Finnish basic income pilot improved wellbeing, study finds
Autonomy? Dreams? We can’t have that!
rikyrah
????
rikyrah
???
The everloving PHUCK ???
Baud
@rikyrah:
https://i.redd.it/b37xj3nzy7x41.jpg
Shaun King sucks, IIRC, but his tweet is apt.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I believe that’s literally the GOP platform.
debbie
Meanwhile, as they work to discredit the medical director of Ohio (coincidentally a Jewish woman), Ohio’s legislators are careful to condemn only her and not their compatriot, Governor Mike DeWine. As Larry Householder, the Speaker of the House, insisted yesterday, “I commend what the governor has did.”
Ignorant idiots.
Immanentize
@rikyrah: Shorter Daniels:
“Don’t blame me!”
ETA. Does Daniels also mean that we can blame in a partisan fashion until the pandemic ends? Say, in two years or so? I’m good with that.
rikyrah
debbie
@rikyrah:
Only ONCE?
lexilis
Maybe I am missing something very basic (possible) but I have a question about the worldometer data for the US. See https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/. Take the “daily new cases”. They provide a listing of every US state and a column for daily new cases. Today only two states have new entries (California – 131 and Georgia – 1). I don’t believe for a second that there were only 132 new cases yesterday. Their chart for total new cases has over 22000. Where are they getting their data and why don’t they show it? A similar question can be formulated about the “new deaths” data They only give +10 in their state by state listing. What am I missing here?
Frankensteinbeck
@debbie:
I assure you that when a Trump voter hears You Can’t Always Get What You Want, they’re imagining denying others happiness.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
This is totally unfair. Kushner has failed at his job way more than once. I’m not sure if he’s ever succeeded at his job.
rikyrah
VOR
@raven: He doesn’t want to wear a mask because it would mess up his makeup and hair. Plus the whole Alpha male, can’t display any weakness vibe he gives off. Don’t know how people think that when he is the whiniest little child in the world – it’s so unfair, nobody’s ever been treated as badly as I have, wah wah wah.
rikyrah
????
OzarkHillbilly
Revealed: Amazon told workers paid sick leave law doesn’t cover warehouses
Gin & Tonic
@Roger Moore: On the contrary, he is successful at being the son Donald wanted, not like Fredo and the other one.
Roger Moore
@lexilis:
The Worldometers page is reporting in as close to real time as possible. When they say there are X cases and Y deaths today, they mean the number reported since midnight EDT. Given when states report that stuff, it’s always pretty low in the morning. If you want to know what the numbers for yesterday were, click the “Yesterday” button.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: @Roger Moore: Wait a minute. You mean he has a job? An actual honest to dawg job????
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: He forgot, “reach for your driver’s license when they ask for it” and “change your tire on the side of the road”. Probably a couple
dozenhundredsthousand more.rikyrah
Lapassionara
@raven: Axl Rose has been making snide remarks about Mnuchin on Twitter. So choosing the cover version indicates, to me, that someone was throwing shade.
rikyrah
rikyrah
????
rikyrah
@rikyrah:
rikyrah
WereBear
@rikyrah: With rusty farm implements.
rikyrah
PST
@rikyrah: Yes, that Daniels piece was the worst. It promoted me to comment:
Your response was more to the point and reflects my view as well.
rikyrah
WereBear
In a tweet from a journalist recently, she was harassed by a non-mask-wearing man who kept saying “It looks weak. You look like a victim.”
Which, of course, is more important that dying and being a disease vector and good citizen: Trump fans in a nutshell.
rikyrah
A reply to Daniels
sanjeevs
@rikyrah: As Jon Stewart put it ages ago, ‘partisan blame game’ is the Republican term for accountability
eric
The death number is rising WITHOUT New York (and New Jersey). The curve is not flattening in most places because NY and NJ were the bulk of the curve. All curves should keep out the two worst hit states that have crested so people can see what is really happening.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Am partial to sifting through the aggregate data reporting at Covidly.
OzarkHillbilly
Roger Moore
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s ridiculous it’s only a 20 point margin. Who in this country is better off today than they were four years ago?
Jeffro
@rikyrah: let’s go, Congress – public hearings starting tomorrow morning at the latest.
Frankensteinbeck
@Roger Moore:
Everyone who cares more about hurting the people they hate than their own health and economic welfare.
Emma from FL
@rikyrah: I have never seen such a concentrated amount of pushback as in the comments to that piece of garbage. More. Forever.
MomSense
Good morning from my office. The city is a ghost town, but still it is a little scary being in a building with people and central heating and an elevator and door handles and – I’m just going to try not to touch my face.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Roger Moore:
Cruel, nasty people who like watching other people who aren’t like them suffer, even though their own lot in life isn’t improving.
Look at voting patterns among rural and exurban white people in Appalachia, the Deep South and the Midwest. The crosstabs on those will make up most of those who are happiest, even though they’re poorer, less food secure and are surrounded by collapsing infrastructure.
OzarkHillbilly
@Roger Moore: White racists.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@rikyrah:
How else can GOP-connected sycophants pretending to run brand new distribution companies created from some “off the shelf” aged corporate entities rake off some price-gouge profits?
There need to be some guillotines.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@WereBear:
I’ll admit to not being perfect about my mask-wearing, but I try, and if I don’t have one on, I stay even further back from people.
That said, if somebody foolishly tries to jump my shit for wearing one, its on like Donkey Kong.
Dorothy A. Winsor
We did our bi-weekly grocery shopping this morning. At 7am, the store was mostly empty. You had be wearing a mask to get in. I wasn’t quite as panicked at being there today. Maybe I’m getting used to taking my life in my hands to get food. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.
ETA: I’m also getting used to wearing a mask. I don’t feel quite so smothered in it. That might be why I was less panicked too.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@lexilis: Depends on when the states post updates. It’s not continuous. At the top of the table you’ll see a “Now” and a “Yesterday” tab. Around 9 pm Eastern every day, the day’s stats are wrapped up and posted to the “Yesterday” tab. That’s your best bet for daily statistics by state.
If you really want to dive into it, the “Now” table has links to all the state sites they’re pulling from and you can go into those and see how they’re reporting.
hueyplong
Mitch Daniels needs to know that there will be plenty of blaming, and it won’t be a game.
He can either help or be accountable. There is no longer any such thing as “third way” in any sense of the term.
Sab
My husband is having their weekly zoom coffee klatch. From all over the country. They are so damn cute. Class of ’69. Parochiol school.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Mayor Larry Vaughn was ahead of his time – I can hear him now:
“I don’t think you appreciate the gut reaction people have to these things…Anthony, It’s all psychological. You yell ‘Flu,’ everybody says ‘Huh? What?’ You yell ‘Coronavirus,’ we’ve got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.”
President Trump: more testing only reveals more infections and therefore increases the numbers. “In a way, by doing all this testing we make ourselves look bad,” he said.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Sab:
I was supposed to have my 40th high school reunion in June.
*sigh
germy
Sab
We had four deliveries yesterday. USPS, UPS, FedEx and Amazon. My husband sat in front of four horrified cats and chopped up the boxes. Cat 5 is blind so couldn’t see the havoc
I brought one box up from the basement to console them. Silly cats.
OzarkHillbilly
I’m gonna try and catch some of that sleep I didn’t get last night.
Sab
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Youngster.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Conservatism and Pandemic Management, from Season 3 of “The Office”.
The episode referenced is “Safety Training”. You’d have to see it to understand it.
germy
Chinese government recommends bear bile for COVID-19
Elizabelle
@WereBear: #Smart people wear masks
Stay tuned. Let’s see how the non-mask wearers act 3 weeks from now. Shit has not gotten real for them yet, because of the lockdown.
satby
Well, I went to the farmers market and basically came right back home because mask compliance was even worse today. I asked one board member what the plan was if the health department shuts down the place because of that and he said there wasn’t a plan (which I already knew). He wasn’t wearing a mask either. Two days until Mother’s day and I am home because of assholes. Which basically is the theme of all our lives now.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Maybe they’ll reschedule for next year. Assuming we can go out by then.
I have a skype call scheduled with my editor this weekend to talk about how to do a book launch when people can’t gather. I can imagine being on line somewhere. But, to speak crassly, it’s harder to see how that sells books. People usually buy at events like that because they want the book signed.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: You made the right decision, but I’d be really mad if I were you. Yeah. That’s our theme now.
Immanentize
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Look at the bright side — whether there is a reunion or not, you are still 40 years older!
germy
germy
Immanentize
@satby: I don’t understand why the folks don’t see this as a huge business opportunity — put up signs that say “everyone must wear a mask.” Then sell cute home made masks at the entry points.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Defense contractors.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Have an online reading. Have a stack of signed books next to you and make a point as you are waiting for people to join to be signing and putting more on the stack.,
Then like Liz Warren, stick around and do personalized signings afterwards that yourpublisher pays to mail to them.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Immanentize:
Ain’t that the truth. I was kind of sad a couple of weeks ago when I saw a couple of friends (one a classmate from my all-male, blue collar urban Catholic school, the other a woman from our class year at our “sister” institution up the street) interacting with a facebook account of someone who’d adopted the persona of a classmate that I knew had killed himself 30 years ago. They were sad to have not known about it all this time. I reported it to facebook, but don’t know if they’ve deleted that phishing account yet or not.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Might have detected a flaw in the plan.
;)
Immanentize
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: yuck. That’s grim.
Immanentize
@NotMax: As I was typing that, I was having the same thought. But, the meeting is today — no harm in the ask.
How are your knees?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NotMax: My son works for Northrup and is considered an essential worker. His work is confidential, so he usually has to go into his office. Confirmed cases have been found not only in the facility, but in his office. No wonder they haven’t taken a loss.
@Immanentize: Hm. That’s possible. Book rate mailing is pretty cheap, assuming we’re talking US only. My publisher is UK based.
satby
@Immanentize: oh, they do! The women who make hand sewn items have been selling masks like gangbusters. But several farmers and the family of the kids that help me refuse to wear masks. At all. And bet you money I will get blamed if the health department does go through and shuts them down because I even asked the question. I hate Indiana. Edit: the kids are no longer allowed to help me, I told them sorry but no masks, no social distancing, no at my booth.
Immanentize
I’m having my house appraised for a refinance to a ten year fixed. I plan on working for another 10, creek don’t rise, so it makes sense. Probably better to get an appraisal now before the whole economy goes down the flusher — so I can say, “I once had a house worth something.”
Robert Sneddon
@satby: I’m sitting here in Scotland where masks are not compulsory and I’m wondering “What part of ‘stay at home’ did you miss?”
The reason, as I understand it, that masks are not required wear for the general public is that they make people feel invulnerable, they decide it would be safe to go out and spend lots of time around strangers because, look, MASK! It doesn’t help that the sorts of Etsy masks most people wear aren’t very effective against viruses and they don’t wear them properly anyway.
Stay at home. Wash your hands.
SiubhanDuinne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
This is the year of my 60th. Our reunions are usually in the fall, and I was really looking forward to a nice autumnal drive to Chicagoland for the festivities and then maybe a diversion to Ontario to see my cousins. None of that’s likely to happen now.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Thanks for asking. They swing between “Okay, we’ll go along with it but won’t cease bitching” and “No way we’re doing that.” Swelling lessening. Still limping on both legs but can better arise from sitting on a chair (or, um, elsewhere) without needing to firmly brace myself first with one or both arms in order to stand. I figure another week to get back to what laughingly passes for normal.
Mishap involving one single flower blossom really did a number on the ol’ lower extremities .
FelonyGovt
@SiubhanDuinne: This June is my 50th high school reunion. I wasn’t going to travel to NYC for it, but now I may take part in some of the virtual activities.
SiubhanDuinne
@FelonyGovt: I hope you can, and I hope it’s fun!
NotMax
@NotMax
Necessary to drive to the bank very soon (as in today or tomorrow) in order to take care of some mundane things. Not looking forward to asking the knees as they currently are to bear weight while standing in a long line. Trying to guess what time of day will have the least people traffic there. The so-called senior hour is way too early in the day for me to function; the most I’m (barely) capable of at that time of day is the occasional grunt.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Immanentize:
We’ve lost a few and really need to compile a list. Some of us get together on a fairly routine basis, mostly during the football season (we tailgate at a friend’s parents home across the street, which is fun).
Best thing I ever saw was a couple of years ago – after a game, the players take about an hour to clear out. We were standing around, gossiping, drinking beer. One guy’s son peeled out (like we all did as kids), right in view of his dad. The phone call killing that came immediately after was magnificent (his wife tried to cool him down a bit, to no avail) – kid tried to bareface it until his dad told him exactly where he was standing at the moment.
lexilis
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Thanks for that. Now it makes sense. I live in Thailand so at, say, 6:00 PM or so here when I will be looking at stuff like that it is only 6:00 AM there so there would be few daily updates that early. Now I know. Thanks.
germy
@NotMax:
All banks in my area are drive-thru only. No standing in line. Instead, a line of cars and impatient drivers.
Dorothy A. Winsor
According to CNN, one of Trump’s personal valets has tested positive for COVID
NotMax
@germy
Physical location and structural/roadway limitations preclude that option at both the banks nearest me which I frequent. Even if I deigned to make the drive into town there’s only one bank there I can think of which offers drive-thru and that only because the plot of undeveloped land they snapped up a couple of years ago for the newest branch was sufficient to incorporate that in the original design, and they don’t offer one of the banking services I need to accomplish.
germy
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Anonymous At Work
First and only words uttered since the repair man left 3 days ago were for the malaria story. I want the entire genus of Aedes eradicated, literally. Mosquitoes are a plague (well, literally, just plague-carriers, vectors, and reservoirs) that can be removed without major ecological damage.
The idea of taking their diseases away one-by-one could work instead. But 1 down, 99 to go.
germy
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court on Thursday threw out the convictions of two political insiders involved in New Jersey’s “Bridgegate” scandal, saying that “not every corrupt act by state or local officials is a federal crime.”
The court said in a unanimous decision Thursday that the government had overreached in prosecuting two allies of then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni, for their roles in a political payback scheme that created massive traffic jam to punish a Democratic mayor who refused to endorse the Republican’s reelection. Kelly was Christie’s onetime deputy chief of staff. Baroni was a top Christie appointee to the Port Authority, the operator of the New York area’s bridges, tunnels, airports and ports.
Kelly and Baroni were convicted of fraud and conspiracy for scheming in 2013 to change the traffic flow onto the George Washington Bridge between New York City and New Jersey to artificially create gridlock in New Jersey’s Fort Lee. The traffic change came after Fort Lee’s mayor declined to endorse Christie.
“For no reason other than political payback, Baroni and Kelly used deception to reduce Fort Lee’s access lanes to the George Washington Bridge – and thereby jeopardized the safety of the town’s residents. But not every corrupt act by state or local officials is a federal crime. Because the scheme here did not aim to obtain money or property, Baroni and Kelly could not have violated the federal-program fraud or wire fraud laws,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court.
NotMax
@Anonymous At Work
Bats, dragonflies and frogs holding on lines 1, 2 and 3.
;)
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Thoughts and prayers ?
Another Scott
@germy: (groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
So congress is going to have to write a zillion new laws about public officials interfering with interstate commerce (and a zillion other things) for personal political gain (as opposed to personal financial gain). What a wonderful use of their time.
This is ridiculous (assuming the summary is accurate).
Public officials don’t get to do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t cross the line to them personally collecting a bag of unmarked bills. And interfering with (and abusing their office to interfere with) interstate traffic is certainly a federal issue and should be a federal crime. Even without writing new statutes.
Sheesh.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mohagan
@FelonyGovt: I went to my 50th HS reunion last Aug. People were friendlier than in HS but not many people I wanted to talk to (or see again) came. We went because a guy in my class I and my husband were friends with in college was a major organizer and it was nice to see him. Otherwise, blech. But touring the HS was interesting. Almost nothing is left from when we went. It is like a junior college now. They have glassblowing!